ELECTRIFICADORA DE SANTANDER S . A .
Electrificadora de Santander S . A . headquarters , located in Bucaramanga
Electrificadora de Santander S . A . ( ESSA ), the utility company serving the Santander Department and other municipalities in the Andes region of Colombia , is a subsidiary of the “ Empresas Publicas de Medellin ” ( EPM ) business group of utility companies serving different areas in the region . ESSA is a mixed capital investment venture for electric power generation , distribution and commercialization , serving 96 municipalities , including 87 in Santander , with others in the Bolivar , Cesar and Northern Santander departments . ESSA power generation resources include three hydropower and two thermoelectric plants , with one of them — the Termobarranca thermoelectricity plant — serving exclusively an Ecopetrol refinery .
ESSA is certified under domestic Standard Model for Internal Control ( MECI 2005 ) and also under global standards such as ISO 9001:2000 , ISO 14000 , OSHAS 18000 and ISO 26000 .
Electric power source since 1891
The origins of ESSA date to 1891 , when businessmen Julio Jones and Rinaldo Goelkel took on the challenge of bringing electricity to growing Colombian industries and households . Throughout the years , different companies opened for business , also bringing electricity to the Santander department and its capital , Bucaramanga . In 1975 , ESSA
118 December 2015